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CONSCIENCE THE BEST POLICY. 



FAST-DAY SERMON 



PREACHED ON APRIL 6, 1848. 



BY JOHN WEISS, 

Pastor of the First Congres.itional Church, New Bedford. 



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NEW BEDFORD : 

PRESS OF HENRY TILDEN 

EVENING BULLETIN OFFICE. 



1848. 



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CONSCIENCE THE BEST POLICY. 



US. 



FAST-DAY SERMON, 



PREACHED ON APRIL 6, 1848. 



/ 

BY JOHN WEISS, 

Pastor of the First Congresational Church, New Bedford. 




NEW BEDFORD : 

PRESS OF HENRY TILDEN, 

SVBNINO BriiLETIN OFFICE. 

1848. 






/ 



SERMON 



Acts xxiv. 16. 
a conscience void of offence. 

Upon an occasion like the present, there are always 
special grounds which occur to us, as authorizing its ob- 
servance ; and they should be distinctly named as the objects 
of our meditation, if we mean that the occasion shall be 
any thing more than an empty form. It is pleasant to find 
these grounds stated in the civil document which has called 
us together, and which is thus elevated from its bare offi- 
cial style, into an earnest protest and a sincere confession. 
Circumstances have lent a weighty import to such clauses 
as the following : — '* Reason and revelation pronounce 
that all men are sinners, and that communities, as well as 
individuals, commit sins and do wrongs, for which they 
ought to repent, and from which they ought to refrain." 
And again : " Let us pray that He will speedily restore 
peace between this and a sister republic, and open the way 
for giving liberty to the millions of the human race now 
wearing the chain of slavery in our own land." The present 
proclamation is a fair and manly one, because it calls 
things by their right names, and invites us to entertain 
feelings of sincere humiliation, because we uphold such 
things as slavery and war. This is as it should be ; it 
recognizes the fact that we do uphold them, not delicately^ 



4 

in the abstract, but wickedly, in the concrete. Particularly 
in the matter of slavery, must we rejoice at the silent 
change which has taken place in this Commonwealth, and 
whose tide now cannot be rolled back. It is the beautiful 
fruit of a most unpopular agitation, which, however, is 
fast losing its right to that epithet, as it penetrates all the 
political parties and slowly regenerates them. This is its 
proper mission ; and when we compare the present tone of 
public sentiment with that of ten years ago, or even five, 
we shall learn to reverence the power of truth, though it 
may have been preached to us by men whose meat, some 
think, is locusts. Their talk has had a savor of health 
and salvation to us ; wild honey, if you choose, yet still 
full of exhilarating strength. Let us renounce our pri- 
vate tastes and feelings, and honorably lend our influence 
to their cause. The day will then soon come when our 
chief magistrate's fast proclamation will be one paragraph 
the shorter, since we shall have repented of being acces- 
sories to this great sin. 

We are partly indebted to the agitation above alluded 
to, for the unpopularity of the present war. Men see 
more clearly the policy of peculiar institutions ; they feel 
more keenly to what lengths it will go, and to what crimes 
it will commit the country. The majority of men in Mas- 
sachusetts do not like to be called upon to support this 
war, because they are more anti-slavery than they used to 
be ; therefore, whatever may be their opinions upon war, 
they dislike fighting for a dubious cause. There is still a 
reminiscence of the revolution in men's hearts ; and the 
bare thought, that the sons of patriots are expected to aid 
and comfort a war for the benefit of slavery, causes the 
ancient blood to mount up and show its indignation on the 
cheek. For a clear exposure of the drift of the present 
war, and of southern policy in general, we are indebted to 



the anti-slavery agitation. It has opened the eyes of men 
in every party, some of whom are ashamed to confess to 
whom they are indebted, while others acknowledge it with 
gladness. This unpopular fanaticism is gradually consoli- 
dating the opinion of the north, and southern statesmen 
ill disguise their new solicitude beneath their sneers. If 
you dislike the movement because it is unpopular, join it, 
and the objection will disappear. But it is no longer in 
our control ; we may advance, but we cannot seriously 
retard it. The growth of its lusty youth is bursting the 
green withes of prejudice and apathy, and it will become 
a terrible presence in our country, restoring her to the 
memory of her youth, and shaming her from the things 
which have seduced her from allegiance to her own ideas. 
Never forget that story of the poor, rude fishermen, whose 
bold, unpopular speech, made martyrs of themselves, but 
victors of their thoughts. Do you not see the painted 
butterfly spring from the ruins of its former lowly life ? 
So do unpopular disciples carry swathed within themselves, 
nurse by their suiferings, emancipate by their death, the 
majestic truth. Do not crush the chrysalis; let the history 
of Christianity teach us to despise nothing because it is 
unpopular. It is poor policy to wait for our children to 
proclaim, that what we laughed at was the solemn truth of 
God ; and it is one ground for humiliation to-day, that we 
still permit ourselves to be deceived by appearances, and 
to hold back a little for want of honest thought. 

At first, it seems as if this lingering war was the great 
cause for humiliation, and that we should feel contrite at 
not having more sternly opposed its inception and progress. 
Whether or not it began in an act of executive usurpation, 
beyond our control, we still must feel that upon us depended 
its continuance, because with us rested the question of 
supplies. And here is ground for humiliation : we might, 



through conscientious representatives, have so steadfastly 
refused a cent for the prosecution of an unjust deed, that 
the executive would have been crippled, and its policy de- 
feated. This has been the practical point ever since the 
war commenced. A distinguished statesman said, in Fan- 
euil Hall, that '' nobody voted for the war, but that it was 
forced upon us by an unconstitutional act of the executive." 
Yet, did nobody vote for the supplies, and are not the sup- 
plies the sinews of war ? If we had done our duty in this 
respect, the war could not have been forced upon us : so 
that it is nothing but a subterfuge to say that nobody voted 
for the war, merely because they did not vote for its begin- 
ning. We begin to feel our error now, since the details of 
what profligate party papers call glory, have come to our 
ears. This glory is fed upon the millions we have voted 
in the persons of our representatives. These tears and 
blood are the fruits of party subservience and compromise. 
Let the hireling writers of the public press visit the widows 
made in those late battles, and attempt to offer to them their 
delicate consolations. Let them smoothly say how sweet 
it must be to die in the discharge of duty, and to merit a 
grateful country's tears. Let them repeat the bewildering 
talk which is retailed with such profuse readiness by those 
who stay at home, and wield nothing heavier than their 
venal pens ; by those who have forced brave men into a 
position where they must fight for bare life and safety — 
like burglars whom you intercept upon your threshold; and 
then let them ask these suffering relatives if they do not 
now rejoice that the supplies were voted, which have so com- 
pletely covered the dead with glory. Methinks the hum- 
blest widow of the commonest and most deluded soldier, 
whom our supplies transported to the shambles of Mexico, 
might teach these coarse orators and editors to despise 
their language. How dreadful are the annals of wars which 



are waged even for the principle of self-defence ! Rare as 
they have been, since men have almost always fought from 
meaner motives, yet the misery they produced has been vast 
enough to quench the glory of all the world's victories, and 
to blight the greenest laurels. But how much more agoniz- 
ing to the hearts of the survivors, must be the thought that 
these fell fighting against self-defence, in a war which is the 
last brazen link in the fierce policy of slavery. And this is 
called glory ; and it is for this that we elected men to vote 
supplies — forsooth, because the party nominations left us no 
alternative. We saw no grounds for making a change ; we 
rather smiled at those who had an extra conscience in the 
matter ; we blindly swore allegiance to the ticket, when 
we knew what the result would be ; we did not dare to 
follow conscience, and emancipate ourselves from party 
trammels. Here is cause for humiliation ; and happy is 
the man who did not cast that bloody vote, instead of per- 
suading himself that, on the whole, the names were as good 
as could be found. Miserable trickery of party, which 
cheats even well-meaning men out of their own conscience, 
and renders those who would not crush a fly, accessories 
to misery and war ! 

But the present position of affairs will teach us, if we 
are willing to hear its lesson, that our chief ground for 
humiliation to-day, does not reside in this particular war, or 
in any single act or measure, but rather in certain faults 
and fallacies of ours which render all wars, and every warlike 
party-measure, possible. I will not present the points which 
seem to me to be fairly deducible from the late events, and 
from the manner of their consummation. The moral drawn 
from them comes too late for the present need : but it may 
become a rich experience for the construction of our future 
history. We may make, then, the general statement, that 
the logic of the political convention always postpones the 



8 

best thing that should be done for the next-best thing that 
apparently can be done, or for still lower degrees of that 
which is expedient. The finest compromiser is the most 
available man. The simple conscience is too millennial to 
do service for the next election. There is no faith in the 
providential issues of truth, but even God must be made 
available. The sacrifice of the next-best thing for the only 
true thing is never made. A partizan is a man who never 
reflects that God will conduct the country's fortunes if he 
will only act out his purest thought, or refuse to do that 
which is only available. God is not a great compromiser, 
but His action is based upon immutable verities, which the 
passions of mankind — the opposition — can never indefi- 
nitely postpone. He does what is pure justice at every 
moment, and waits for the issues, conscious that what it 
is purely right to do it is proper to do. He teaches us that 
it is easier to do a simple good thing, or to abstain from 
the next-best thing — which is the same — than to balance 
probabilities, particularly if we have to sanction some great 
wrong for the sake of some considerable good. In fine, He 
makes a millennial conscience the judge of present expe- 
diency. It is nothing but our want of faith in this great 
principle, which feeds, and promises to feed, the life of 
slavery. It is nothing else which votes the supplies for 
every war. We will not sufier our opposition to some 
measure, or our abstinence from some projected policy, to 
assist the plans of God, which keep the future good as the 
result of present conscientious sacrifice : but we attempt to 
force providence by resigning conscience for the next-best 
thing. 

From this general statement we can descend to some of 
the particulars which it includes. Furnished with it, let 
us analyze, for instance, the war spirit : and our results 
will be seen to apply to all partizan policy, since that seeks 



9 

either to wrest a good from providence by evil means, or to 
do only that which is available. 

The war spirit is composed of three elements : — First, 
the animal love of fight : second, a mistaken notion of 
honor : third, a perverted sense of justice. That analysis 
includes every element which makes the profession of arms, 
or which impels the civilian to thank God and to shout at 
a famous victory. We need not spend much time in dis- 
cussing the first, — it is neither flattering nor pleasant to be 
reminded that, in any thing, we emulate the brute creation, 
and sometimes even out-Herod Herod. The love of oppo- 
sition, whose worst form is the love of fight, is a sad inher- 
itance of the animal nature, the link between man and the 
unreasoning quadruped, who still rarely fights except to 
gratify his hunger. It is an impulse which is chiefly kept 
alive and active by certain intellectual errors, soon to be 
mentioned ; any thing in the likeness of a man must first 
imagine there is something to fight for, else he is not at 
the trouble. And the presence of Christianity in the 
world, like the prophet among the lions, has so far cowed 
and modified this impulse, that we may safely say, that al- 
though the recital of ancient fights and deeds falsely called 
heroic, still sends an animal thrill through the nerves of the 
excitable youth, and though the pulses of martial music can 
still almost deify the wrong; yet, without the presence of 
these intellectual errors — the last remnants of barbaric 
thought, to glorify the crime and cheat the conscience — no 
man would fight. As the human intellect becomes more 
sanctified, even the love of opposition will be an unpardon- 
able breach of manners ; and, notwithstanding the litera- 
ture of the race, and its chosen memories, and even its 
most stirring metaphors, are warlike, yet the animal im- 
pulse will finally yield to the highest and hardest requisi- 
tion of Christian love. Even now, almost any man will 



10 

assent to the simple proposition, that the law of love ought 
to be supreme. He will begin by saying, because his heart 
compels him, that war is a violation of that law, and its 
spirit a most disastrous one ; but — and here the man begins 
to argue, because his head will interfere, and so long as that 
head is subject to certain errors and misconceptions, the 
law of love in his heart will never be practised in its broad 
and noble Christian sense. How needful, then, it is, — in 
fact, the only thing the case demands, — to clear away the 
intellectual rubbish, and to substitute lawful Christian prem- 
ises for the mind's operation. This brings us to the sec- 
ond element in the war spirit, — a mistaken notion of hon- 
or. Leaders of party know very well how to move this 
spring, — turgid and time-serving orators can vault into 
place by its rebound. If it crushes human hearts, and 
dabbles the garments of the state in blood, there are fine 
catch-words of honor, patriotism, and right, to make us 
think those hearts a sacrifice well pleasing to God, and the 
steam of that blood, a savour of incense to the Lord of 
Hosts. Let us analyze the popular sentiment of honor. 
Ask a man if he believes in the law of love and the peace- 
ful compromise of injuries, and this will be his answer : — 
*' Yes, I believe in that law, promulgated by trump of an- 
gels long ago. I believe that it ought not to be heralded 
by trump of war, and peace has her greater victories; and 
Christ did speak from the earnest fulness of his persecuted 
spirit when he said, — ' Blessed are the peace-makers;' 
but then, my Christian friend, owr Aowor is at stake ; the 
eyes of Europe, — of the world, — are upon us. We cannot 
compromise our dignity, and disgrace ourselves into a hiss- 
ing and a bye-word. In fine, we must fight, gospel or no 
gospel ; the stern necessity is imposed upon us ; we must 
vindicate the national honor, or else be blotted from the 
roll of nations." Such is the recruiting drum and fife with 



11 

which the so-called patriot leads men captive. Honor is 
the hardly-used word which fills the ears and bewilders the 
consciences, and beats the ploughshares of a peaceful na- 
tion into swords, as if they needed human blood to fertil- 
ize the soil of their tillage. This is the worst error of the 
human head, because it is so fine and contagious. Most 
commonly, however, the error takes this form — that, though 
we may be wrong, honor permits no retreat or repentance. 
But yet, men are not willing to teach their children this, 
any more than they are willing to teach them to love strong 
drink. Every father who yearns to promote his child's 
true honor and welfare, will explain to him the true Chris- 
tian doctrine of retreat from a bad promise or a wicked 
oath. He will teach him that the only true way of escap- 
ing from a false position, is, not to persist in it, but to es- 
cape from it ; and this, he himself feels, in his cool mo- 
ments, to be the only proper and manly course. 

But what can it be which alters the case when we come 
to act as citizens and not as parents ? What juggle is it 
which substitutes a corrupt and senseless code for this plain 
Christianity ? Why take the position that, to become im- 
plicated in a measure, pledges us to sustain it and carry it 
out ? Because it is a plain matter of fact, beyond all argu- 
ment or explanation, that the intellect has inherited a world- 
ly notion of honor, side by side, and at variance, with that 
of the moral sense : and it deludes those men most thor- 
oughly, who have much party feeling and strong nationality, 
and who are apt to be excited by the false patriotism of a 
newspaper paragraph. Such a man, backed by the sympa- 
thy of numbers, commits that which he would have pun- 
ished in his child. He throws his vote, which helps to 
maintain his government in a false position, because there 
is a prevalent fiction that governments never retreat — it is 
very well for private men now and then to luxuriate in 



12 

Christianity; but governments must never flinch — they 
must have a stern and single purpose, and carry out, for 
their own credit, what they have commenced. For their 
own credit, indeed ! As if any sane man could esteem a 
persistency in error creditable, or mistake it for that firm- 
ness which is both the glory and the policy of a government 
when it pursues the right ! It is this very firmness and 
persistency which the citizen needs as a salutary check upon 
the abuse of power : and he is not a true citizen who re- 
fuses to employ it to retrieve his country's errors. 

And to-day we do not feel humiliated because we lacked 
the firmness which might have arrested the tide of war, 
but because out weakness helped to swell its volume. We 
have been the victims of that false honor which finds it 
easier to persist in evil than nobly to repent. The sneers 
of men are more potent with us, than the smiles of God. 

But perhaps the false idea of honor, — the idea of the feu- 
dal champion, the modern duellist, and the demagogue, — is 
not so prevalent now as formerly. Appeals to the feeling 
do not now move men so universally and certainly. Few, 
except the impetuous, the unthinking or the designing, are 
likely to become its blind and irreclaimable votaries. But 
there is another intellectual error, the third element of the 
war spirit, which is more universally diffused, and which is 
held by men of greater stability, both of thought and con- 
science : the perverted sense of justice. They say rightly, 
that to obtain justice is to vindicate God — let justice be 
done, though the heavens fall. It is the very condition of 
social existence and the moral order of the universe. We 
will have justice at whatever cost: we will repel injustice 
at whatever sacrifice ; else we should disown the power and 
the truth of God within us, and be unjust ourselves. 
Granted — the whole of it. It is a noble position always: 
justice at whatever sacrifice. No man can refuse to de- 



13 

mand that justice shall be established, without making him- 
self below justice and unworthy of it. But here, my 
friends, the gospels interfere; and we gather from their 
spirit that the highest justice is that which is due from man 
to God. In seeking justice, fail not to do justice to the 
laws of virtue. Justice at whatever sacrifice does not 
mean justice at the expense of any crime. The moment 
that we find our sacrifice for justice is to involve a single 
moral lapse, we must abandon its pursuit, because the laws 
of virtue are superior to our private aims of justice. If 
the chief reason for establishing justice is to establish moral 
order — all other motives being purely selfish and temporal — 
then we must see that no moral disorder is committed in 
the process. Otherwise, we are guilty of the practical par- 
adox of gaining virtue at the expense of crime. Our posi- 
tion certainly is, justice at any expense : but to that the 
gospels add another saving clause — except the expense of 
crime. Without that clause, the grossest injustice would 
be daily committed in the name of virtue. Many an at- 
rocity has been perpetrated in the name of liberty — many a 
noble man and woman has been burnt in the name of 
God — many a war has been waged in the name of jus- 
tice. 

There is great danger, too, grasping and unscrupulous 
as men generally are, particularly when in a passion, that 
they call that justice which is only self-interest. There is 
great danger that they dignify the most bloodthirsty ambi- 
tion by that holy name ; and, furnished with a pretext, 
wage, in the name of God, a war, with the objects and 
spirit of Satan himself. But let that pass ; and let us sup- 
pose a case in which some palpable injustice has been 
committed towards us, — a downright injustice, without a 
shadow of excuse or provocation, and no negotiation or 
arbitration can reinstate us in our rights, or grant us com- 



14 

pensation. A very strong case you will perceive, and all 
on one side. Past history rarely affords us such a case of 
pure, groundless, unprovoked injustice; and the spirit of 
modern times will hardly permit its occurrence. But sup- 
pose that it does occur ; what is our alternative ? what is 
the last appeal ? The patriot cries, to arms ! the last ap- 
peal is force. Justice at any sacrifice ; our rights must be 
enforced by the argument of the bayonet. We must take 
what will not be bestowed. This may be the earnest posi- 
tion of a conscientious man, with no alloy of passion or 
improper motives, but in a righteous indignation at violated 
right. It may be. What shall we answer ? Without stop- 
ping by the way to show, as we might do in numerous 
instances, that wars, undertaken with that motive, have 
failed to procure the right involved, or settle the mooted 
point, but have been followed by a peace that only restored 
both parties to the state in which they were before the 
war — thus proving that an appeal to force is by no means 
an infallible way of getting justice, — without dwelling 
on that interesting point, there is this simple answer to be 
made : in your attempt to secure justice, you are about to 
commit the grossest injustice within the ability of man. 
To establish your rights, unquestioned as they may be, you 
are about to commit more crimes, and violate more laws 
of God, than can be warranted by the establishment of any 
right or justice whatsoever. You are about to become, in 
your turn, most unjust and criminal ; and however strongly 
public opinion may support you, however loudly the sweet 
voices of the mob may second the murderous charges of 
your steel, your so-called pursuit of justice is abominable 
and hideous in the sight of God. It violates the very fun- 
damentals of the gospel ; it loads your soul with the weight 
of more crimes than the sense of gratified revenge, or 
even the establishment of your cause, can ever cancel, or 



15 

atone for. Be assured, however good the thing for which you 
aim, you could not do worse things to get it, and therefore 
you are not justified in your last argument of force. Now, 
it is very true that the popular feeling, the popular pride, 
the whole tone of thought, the whole custom of the race, 
is dead against such a position as that ; there have been 
times when a man's sanity was suspected for assuming it. 
But nevertheless, my friends, consider, with minds un- 
clouded by the false fumes of glory, not inebriated by all 
the victories in the name of justice, consider. The last 
resort of war breaks the sacredest laws of God : it turns 
men into beasts : it murders, it ravages, it inflicts many 
shades of misery, it subverts the whole system of moral 
order. The cool obedience of the soldier compromises 
the parties to the deepest atrocities that are ever committed 
in the foulest causes ; it covers with blood every page of 
the gospel. Is your pursuit of justice worth that sacrifice ? 
Can such an alliance with that which is earthly establish 
that which is heavenly 1 No ; the better sense, the calmer 
moments, of all mankind, answer. No. The free, unpreju- 
diced intellect of the race will abhor the sacrifice, and sub- 
stitute the Christian position, — ^justice, at any expense of 
time, of money, of patience, of forbearance, of smiting 
and reviling ; but no justice, — rather the endurance of in- 
justice, — than the commission of outrageous crimes. 

In conclusion : all social and public, as well as private 
matters, depend upon this point : can a good end ever justify 
evil means ? can a considerable good ever justify a partial 
compromise of conscience ? and it is a principle of our 
religion, seen by all of us in our moments of sanity, that 
it cannot. The race retrogrades instead of advancing, when 
it gains anything by unjust means, because to do so involves 
injustice. Its material aggrandizement will poorly balance 
its moral deterioration. Its available men and measures 



16 

will themselves execute judgment upon a violated sense of 
right. If some law of God has been repealed, we are not 
at liberty, on pretence of righting matters, to repeal His far 
greater and more stringent laws. We are in no case, 
whether the end be great or small, at liberty to stifle the 
faintest whisper of our conscience. Is not this a plain and 
righteous principle ; does it not exhaust the whole matter, 
and supply us with a test for all time 1 Can we tamper 
with it, and attempt to qualify it, and reason away its strin- 
gency, and escape its conditions, without subverting all 
principle, destroying the diiference between right and 
wrong, and leaving every page of the gospel at the mercy 
of a time-serving logic? No: we must put faith in that 
great principle of private conscience, hard as it is — yet all 
untried and dubious as its practice is. If it is a principle 
of Christ, we must apply it, come what may. Any man 
who pretends to believe in principles at all, cannot escape 
from that one, without levelling the fair fabric of moral 
order, and annulling every gift of God to the race. But 
generations will come who will find its practice easy and 
ennobling — a kingdom in this world, though not of'ii ; but 
only on condition of our previous faith. 



